Saturday, 30 April 2016

She was born in Podeloy (Podu Iloaiei), Romania, the sister
of the three writing brother Shvarts. In
1932 she moved to Czernowitz. In 1935
she graduated from the seminary for Yiddish literature and language learning. She was a Yiddish teacher until 1963,
thereafter a teacher of Romanian studies.
From 1976 she was living in Toronto.
Over the years 1948-1958, she compiled and translated schoolbooks, as
well as plays for the Yiddish state theater in Bucharest. From 1950 she published children’s poetry and
reportage pieces in Ikuf-bleter
(Pages from IKUF [Jewish Cultural Association]) in Bucharest. She compiled and translated (beginning in 1949-1950,
for the Romanian State Publishing House in Bucharest): Yidishe shprakh (Yiddish language); Geshikhte fun altertum (History of antiquity); Geshikhte fun rumenye (History of Romania); Haynttsaytike geshikhte (Contemporary history); Yidishe shprakh, gramatik un ortografye,
farn ershtn elementar-klas (Yiddish language, grammar and orthography for
the first, elementary class) (1954), 64 pp.; Yidishe shprakh, gramatik un ortografye, farn tsveytn elementar-klas
(Yiddish language, grammar and orthography for the second, elementary class) (1957),
102 pp.; Aritmetik, farn ershtn klas
(Arithmetic for the first class) (1958), 152 pp.; Aritmetik, farn tsveytn klas (Arithmetic for the second class) (1958),
246 pp.

He was born in Podeloy (Podu Iloaiei), Romania. He graduated from middle school and in 1925
from the electro-technical institute in Jassy.
He survived concentration camps during WWII. From 1948 he was living in Bucharest. He edited Ikuf-bleter
(Pages from IKUF [Jewish Cultural Association]) in Bucharest and contributed to
Kultur-vegvayzer (Cultural guide) there
as well. He translated into Yiddish Lider (Poems) (Bucharest, 1966), 238
pp., by the Romanian poet Tudor Arghezi.
He also placed a piece in the anthology Oyfshtayg (Ascent), ed. M. Rispler (Bucharest, 1964). He died in Bucharest.

He was born in Kosov (Kosów), Grodno
district, Russian Poland, into a poor family.
He studied in religious primary school and in yeshivas, and in 1906 he
received ordination into the rabbinate.
In 1907 he moved to the United States and became a laborer. He was active in the Jewish labor
movement. He was a leader in Jewish
school curricula in New Jersey. He began
writing while still a student and debuted in print with a story in Fraye arbeter shtime (Free voice of
labor) in New York in 1915. From that
point he published poems, stories, and impressions of New York in: Forverts (Forward), Tog (Day), and Dzhoyrzi-shtime
(Voice of Jersey), among other serials.
He was co-editor of the literary publication Ineynem (Altogether), published by the Yehoash writers’ union in
Jersey City and Bayonne in 1930. He died
in Jersey City, New Jersey.

He was born in Bobruisk,
Byelorussia. He studied in religious
elementary school and yeshiva, and early on turned his attention to secular
subjects; at age fourteen he entered the fifth class of high school in Marianpol,
later studied at the medical-surgical academy in St. Petersburg, received his
diploma in 1882 as a doctor of medicine, and in 1883 settled in Vilna where he
rapidly became one of the most favored and popular doctors and a prominent
community leader. During the years of
WWI, when Vilna was occupied by the German army, Vigodski was an important
member of the representatives of the Jewish population before the occupying
authorities. The Germans interned him
for his protestation against imposed contributions in Match 1917 in a camp for
prisoners of war. Returning in April
1918 to Vilna, Vigodski joined the Zionist organization and was sent by it to
be a minister in the first Vilna government, when in 1919 Vilna was for a short
time independent. He was selected in
1922 to be a deputy from the Vilna region in the Polish Sejm. He served as a member of the education
committee of the Sejm and energetically spoke out for the rights of Hebrew and
Yiddish schools. He was later selected
to be chair of the Vilna democratic Jewish community. He was also one of the principal supporters
of the Vilna Troupe (1920), later a founder and chair of the Jewish Theatrical
Society in Vilna.

Vigodski began to write soon after
taking up his medical practice. Over the
course of several years, he published in Russian and German popular science
articles on medicine and hygiene. He
began writing in Yiddish when interned in the POW camp. In the first years after WWI, he published
his articles in: Di yidishe tsaytung
(The Jewish newspaper), Unzer fraynd
(Our friend), Di tsayt (The time), Tog (Day), and Di vokh (The week)—in Vilna; and Haynt (Today), Moment
(Moment), and Unzer lebn (Our
life)—in Warsaw. He also contributed to
the Vilna Pinkes (Records), edited by
Zalmen Reyzen, among other publications.
In all the newspapers he wrote about Jewish and general politics in
Poland, about Zionist issues, and also about medicine. His books include: In shturm, zikhroynes fun di okupatsye-tsaytn (In the storm, memoirs
from the era of the occupation) (Vilna, 1926), 286 pp.; In gehenem, zikhroynes fun di daytshe tfises beshas der velt-milkhome
(In hell, memoirs from the German prisons during the world war) (Vilna, 1927),
114 pp.; In sambatyen, zikhroynes fun
tsveytn seym, 1922-1927 (In the Sambation, memoirs of the Second Sejm, 1922-1927)
(Vilna, 1931), 161 pp. He edited (with
Y. Yafe): Di yidishe tsaytung, a
daily newspaper in Vilna (1919); and Vilner
togblat (Vilna daily newspaper) (1919-1920). In 1940 when the Red Army took possession of
Vilna, Vigodski called upon them with an appeal to Stalin that the Soviet Union
should not close the Yiddish and Hebrew schools in the newly occupied regions
of Poland and Lithuania. When the Nazis
seized Vilna in 1941, Vigodski—an old man of eighty-five—was severely ill. Stirred from the habit of many years’
duration, masses of Jews flowed to his home and sought his help in this time of
emergency. As sick as he was, barely
able to get up from his sickbed, Vigodski dressed in his finest state garb,
with the yellow patch only recently sown on, and—in the hope of getting them to
repeal something of their harsh decrees—he went shaking to speak on behalf of
Jewish affairs. The Nazi official wiped
his hands with a handkerchief and had the sick and elderly man thrown down the
steps. Bloodied all over, Vigodski
barely was able to make his way home.
When a bit later Gestapo agents came to arrest him, the old man refused
to go with them. Battered and bruised,
he was taken by them to the Lukishker Prison.
Others who were with him in the same cell later reported that the entire
time he was in jail, he held himself with a rare pride and tried to encourage
his fellow arrestees. His condition in
prison deteriorated. Without the least
medical help, on a stone floor, the Vilna Jewish leader of many years died in
one of the last days of July 1941.

Friday, 29 April 2016

He
was born in Żarek, near Wieluń, Poland. He studied in religious primary school and
yeshivas. In 1874 he moved to
England. He published poetry in Fonograf (Phonograph) and Di tsayt (The time) in London. He was the author of the pamphlets: Mayn lebns geshikhte (My life story) (London,
1930), 16 pp., in which he described in verse the life of a Jewish boy from
Poland and his wanderings; and Shire zimra
(Songs to sing), nature and love songs in Yiddish and Hebrew (London, 1933), 19
pp. He died in Dublin, Ireland.

He was born in Dobzhin (Dobrzyn),
Plotsk district, Poland, to a father who was a cantor. As a youth he moved with his parents to
Hungary, studied in religious primary school, in the Pressburg (Bratislava) and
Klausenburg (Cluj-Napoca) yeshivas, and later graduated from high
school. He worked for a time as a Hebrew
teacher in a village. Over the years 1916-1918,
he served in the Austrian military and was on the Russian front, later settling
in Budapest where in 1923 he worked as a cantor for the Arena Street Synagogue. From 1923 he was living in the United
States. He took up cantorial positions
in New York and other cities. He visited
Europe, as well as Central and South America.
He began writing on the cantorial art in Di shul un di khazonim velt (The synagogue and the world of cantors)
in Warsaw (1934). From that point he
wrote about cantors for: the anthology Khazones, zamlbukh
(Cantorial art, anthology) (New York, 1937); in Keneder odler
(Canadian eagle) in Montreal; Forverts
(Forward), Morgn-zhurnal (Morning
journal, and Tog (Day) in New York; Di shtime (The voice) in Mexico City;
among others. He adapted and wrote music
for poetry by Yiddish and Hebrew poets.
In album format: Goles-kinder un
shtumer protest (Diaspora children and quiet protest) (New York, 1930), 6
pp. From June 1959 he published every
Friday in Forverts a popular series
of articles, “Barimte khazonim” (Famous cantors).

He was born in Sluzheve (Służewo),
Poland. He studied in religious
elementary school and was a chorister with cantors in Polish cities. He worked as a coal miner in Essen, Germany,
and in 1938 he was taken away by the Germans to Zbonshin (Zbonszyn),
Poland. In 1939 he arrived in Rochester
where he worked as a tailor. He debuted
in print with a poem in Moment
(Moment) in Warsaw, but only from 1953 did he begin to publish his poems in a
series of periodicals: Fraye arbeter
shtime (Free voice of labor), Bitokhn
(Confidence), Undzer eygn vort (Our
own word), and Oyfsnay (Afresh), Zayn (To be)—all in New York; Dorem-afrike (South Africa) in
Johannesburg; and others. He translated
poems by Else Lasker-Schüler and Nelly Sachs.

His original name was Vays
(Weiss). He was born in Lodz, Poland,
into a wealthy Hassidic family. He studied
in religious primary school and secular subject matter with private
tutors. In 1901 he moved with his
parents to London, England. Until 1915
he was employed in chemical manufacturing, and from 1918 in leather
manufacture. He served in the British
army, 1917-1918. In 1913 he began to
publish poems and stories in London’s Idisher
ekspres (Jewish express). From that
point he published his work in Yiddish-language venues in London: Der idisher zhurnal (The Jewish
journal), Der fonograf (The
phonograph), Yontef bleter (Holiday
sheets), Fraynd (Friend), Advertayzer (Advertiser), Idishe post (Jewish mail), Tsayt (Time) edited by Morris Meyer, Loshn un lebn (Language and life) edited
by Nokhum Shtentsl, Idishe shtime
(Jewish voice), Teater-shpigl
(Theater mirror), and Yidish london (Jewish
London) (1939). He also contributed to the
Loshn un lebn almanac: Vaytshepl lebt (Whitechapel lives). He published as well in: Literarishe bleter (Literary leaves) in Warsaw, and Fraye horizontn (Free horizons) and Der teater-shpigl (The theater mirror) in
Paris. His books include: Neshome-klangen (Sounds of the soul),
poetry (London, 1941), 84 pp., with a foreword by Morris Meyer; Pamokhet, der khelmer poet (Pamokhet,
the poet from Chelm) (London, 1954), 71 pp.
His poems also appeared with notation: Kol yehuda (Voice of Judah) and Baym
kineres shteyt a yosem (An orphan stands by the Sea of Galilee), music by
Y. Rozenberg and Sam Goldberg. A poem of
his may also be found in the English-language anthology, The Golden Peacock, edited by Joseph Leftwich. He died in London.

He was born in Yezyerne (Ozerna),
eastern Galicia. He graduated from high
school in Zlatshev (Zolochiv) and Lemberg University as a lawyer. From his student years, he was an active
Zionist and a delegate to all Zionist congresses. He was a leader in Jewish sports
organizations in Galicia. He served as an
officer in the Austrian army during WWI.
He was a founder of Jewish self-defense in Lemberg during the pogroms of
1918. In that year, out of fear of
repression, he left Poland, traveled to Copenhagen, Denmark, where he succeeded
in influencing the world renowned writer Georg Brandes to appear publicly
against the pogroms against Jews in Poland.
From Copenhagen he came to Vienna and from there to the land of Israel,
where he lived in Jerusalem and Haifa and where over the course of years took a
prominent role as a defender of Jews in English courts. In 1930 he chose to join the Revisionist
Party. He began writing in Yiddish in Der yud (The Jew) in Cracow (1905-1907),
of which he was a cofounder and co-editor.
He was also cofounder of Togblat
(Daily newspaper) in Lemberg, where in 1918 he frequently wrote detailed
articles concerned with the contemporary Jewish state of affairs in Galicia and
Poland generally. He died in
Jerusalem. After his death there
appeared under the editorship of Dr. B. Lubutski a book dedicated to Vashits,
entitled Derekh ḥayav shel tsiyoni loḥem (The path in life of a Zionist
fighter) (Jerusalem: Aḥiasaf, 1947), 159 pp.

He was a Polish politician,
ethnographer, journalist, and writer. He
co-founded the Jewish section of the Polish Socialist Party (PPS [Polska Partia Socjalistyczna]) in the late 1890s. Between the world wars, he was the Polish
minister and ambassador in Latvia. He
was the author of a series of works, such as: Die Judenfrage in Kongress-Polen, ihre Schwierigkeiten und ihre Lösung
(The Jewish question in Congress Poland, difficulties and solution) (Vienna,
1915), 45 pp. During party activities,
he mastered speaking and reading Yiddish.
He contributed to: Der arbayter
(The laborer), Yiddish organ of the PPS (London-Cracow-Warsaw, 1898-1906), and
he edited issues 2, 3, 4, and 5; and Di
proletarishe velt (The proletarian world) (London, 1902), and he edited its
October issue. He died in Warsaw.

He was a Polish politician,
ethnographer, journalist, and writer. He
co-founded the Jewish section of the Polish Socialist Party (PPS [Polska Partia Socjalistyczna]) in the late 1890s. Between the world wars, he was the Polish
minister and ambassador in Latvia. He
was the author of a series of works, such as: Die Judenfrage in Kongress-Polen, ihre Schwierigkeiten und ihre Lösung
(The Jewish question in Congress Poland, difficulties and solution) (Vienna,
1915), 45 pp. During party activities,
he mastered speaking and reading Yiddish.
He contributed to: Der arbayter
(The laborer), Yiddish organ of the PPS (London-Cracow-Warsaw, 1898-1906), and
he edited issues 2, 3, 4, and 5; and Di
proletarishe velt (The proletarian world) (London, 1902), and he edited its
October issue. He died in Warsaw.

He was born in Antopol (Antopolye),
Grodno district, to a father who was a poor elementary school teacher. He grew up in Plotsk, Poland, to which his
parents moved when he was still a child.
He studied with his father and privately. He was carried away early on by the
revolutionary movement on the eve of 1905, joined the Bund, and for his
revolutionary work he was thrown in prison on several occasions in Plotsk,
Warsaw, and Kalish. In 1906 he moved to
the United States, worked in a factory, sold newspapers, suffered from hunger,
lived an ascetic life, avoided people, and was tortured by nightmares and physical
and mental illnesses until his fatal end in 1912. The sole consolation in his tragic life was
the friendship that he established with several young Jewish writers who would
later become well-known as “Di yunge” (The young ones). Varshe was closer to Zishe Landau, Moyshe
Nadir, and Kolya Teper than to the others.
Together with Teper, he translated Chekhov’s plays into Yiddish: Der onkl vanya (Uncle Vanya [original: Diadia Vanya]), Der vaser-foygl (The seagull [original: Chaika]), and Der karshn-gortn (The cherry orchard [original: Vishenvyi
sad]); with
B. Lapin, he translated Knut Hamsun’s Viktorya
(Victoria) and Leonid Andreev’s Dos lebn
funem mentshn (The life of man [original: Zhizn' cheloveka]). Varshe
worked the last weeks of his life as a night watchman in an apartment house
which was then in the middle of construction.
One night he was high up in the complete darkness of the unfinished
building and plunged downward. When he
was found lying on the sidewalk, he was already dead. K. Teper and Z. Landau later published his
collected writings: Vegn fun a neshome,
togbukh, ferzn, bletlekh (Pathways of a soul, diary, verses, pages) (New
York, 1913), 111 pp.

“Varshe’s
problems were ‘sin,’ ‘no good,’ ‘good,’ and the like,” wrote B. Vladek. “Kabbala was reality for him. And suffering from definite forms of nervous
illnesses and material poverty, he never mentioned things that would have the
slightest connection to materiality.
Like many other lost spirits, he sought salvation in books. In his Bletlekh
(Pages) which was full of extracts from books, one can see that he read a great
deal and he looked hopelessly everywhere for an answer to his unhappy
existence.”

He was born in Sochaczew, Warsaw
district, Poland, into a well-off family.
His father was a follower of the Jewish Enlightenment who had lived for
a time in London. Oyzer received a
traditional Jewish education, for a short time worked as a Hebrew teacher, and
thereafter mastered the art of photography.
He began writing during WWI. In
1920 I. M. Vaysenberg (Weissenberg) published his work Shmuglers, a novel in three parts about Jewish life in Poland under
German occupation (illustrated with drawings by Y. Zaydenbeytel) (Warsaw, part
1, 94 pp.; part 2, 94 pp.; part 3, 120 pp.).
The book made a huge impression among Yiddish readers in Poland, Russia,
and various other countries. In a short
period of time, it appeared in several editions (Warsaw: Kultur-life, 1922;
Kiev: Kultur-lige, 1930; Vilna: Kletskin, 1930), in Hebrew translation by Y. H.
Yeivin, as Mavriḥim, roman
(Smugglers, a novel) (Tel Aviv, 1930), 231 pp., and in a Russian translation by
Yankev Slonim, Spekulianty (Moscow,
1927), 294.[1] “He gives us the smugglers so crude and
brutal, and perhaps cruder and more brutal than they were in life…,” wrote
Shmuel Niger. “His depiction of them is
fresh and moist, like a section of a field about to be ploughed…. The crude life is painted crudely—this is The Smugglers—a sprout of a not yet
mature but fresh and full artistic kernel.”
It was also reprinted much later: (Buenos Aires: Lifshits fund, 1969),
315 pp.

After the great success of his book,
Varshavski remained in Warsaw. He wrote
more, and people expected more work from him.
He took part in activities of writers’ associations. He published correspondence pieces in Di tsayt (The times) in London, and from
time to time places stories in New York’s Tsukunft
(Future); “In di berg” (In the mountains), Khalyastre
(Gang) 1 (1922), pp. 36-39 (Warsaw); “Vayberish” (Womanly), Dos naye lebn (The new life) (1922) (New
York); “Der mundir” (The uniform), Khalyastre
2 (1924), pp. 25-66 (Paris). He
published fragments of a new book, “Shnit-tsayt” (Harvest time), in: Literarishe bleter (Literary leaves) in
Warsaw, Di royte velt (The red world)
in Kharkov, Albatros (Albatross,
edited by Uri-Tsvi Grinberg) in Warsaw, Milgroym
(Pomegranate) in Berlin-London, and elsewhere.
Due to some sort of confusion with his documents, in 1923 he left
Poland, spent some time in Berlin and London, and in 1924 settled in
Paris. In 1926 he edited a one-off
publication in Paris, entitled Literarishe
revi (Literary review) in which he published his story, “In keler bay
berele bas” (In the cellar with Berele Bas), and from there he also published
his writings in various magazines, among them in the revived Yidishe velt (Jewish world) in Warsaw.

In 1926 Varshavski’s novel Shnit-tsayt (381 pp.) was published by
the Vilna publishing house of Kletskin.
This novel did not realize the hopes that the Yiddish literary critics
had placed on him. It was received coldly
by both critics and readers. He was
discouraged and could write very little thereafter. At least he was able to derive satisfaction
from artists’ circles in Montparnasse and took up painting and writing essays
on art and artists. In this genre he
published: Pinkhes kremer (Pinkhes
Kremer), in the series “Monographs on Jewish Artists” (Paris: Triangl, 1928),
16 pp. in album format; and Avrom
manyevitsh un zayne molerishe verk biz haynt (Avrom Manyevitsh and his work
in painting until today), with a foreword by A. Lunatsharski (New York, 1930),
64 pp. In the 1930s, when publication
began in Paris on the “General Encyclopedia” supported by the Dubnov Fund,
Varshavski performed technical editorial work on it, but he kept himself
entirely aloof from the life of a Yiddish writer. He associated all the more with artists and
those working in the plastic arts in Montparnasse. He was often in the company of Perets Markish
and Ilya Ehrenburg when they spent time in Paris. Foreign guests from the family of Jewish writers
regretted his literary decline and sought an explanation for it. “It seems to me,” wrote Y. Botoshanski, “that
no writer among us has so fallen—so to speak—to the spiritual nadir as has
Oyzer Varshavski…. He glimpsed the
abyss, and he gave no accounting of it that under the water in the well is more
soil, that from the other side of the abyss are more people with new endeavors,
with new complications. Varshavski has
not gone further.”

With the outbreak of WWII,
Varshavski was faced with a spiritual crisis.
Filled with his artistic sensibility that gruesome events were
impending, particularly for Jews, he feverishly prepared for the great theme:
Jews during WWII. He regularly jotted
down, registered, recorded everything that he saw and what was looming about
him. In May 1941 when the Germans were
approaching Paris, he was able to reach Marseilles, and there sought out a
possibility of emigrating anywhere to a country west of the ocean, and then as
he lost all hope for this plan, he departed for the small village of Gard in
Vaucluse department. He was there with
his wife as well as many other Jews at the time, as “involuntary residents”
under police supervision. For a period
of time in 1942 he was in Nice. In the
summer of 1943 when the Germans took all of France, he was able to save himself
and make his way to Saint Gervais in Savoie which was then under Italian
occupation. Thereafter as the Italians
concluded a separate armistice and the Nice Jewish community assembled the Jews
from the southern zone, so that—according to an agreement with the Italian
authorities—they could evacuate to Italy, Varshavski, although the plan did not
come to fruition, left with the receding Italian army. In September 1943 he reached Rome, and over
the course of several months he lived tormented under extremely severe
circumstances, in hiding, for a lengthy period of time in prison in Rome, and
in 1944 he was deported from there to Auschwitz. According to testimony of a survivor in the
Oswego refugee camp (in the United States), Aba Furmanski, Varshavski was
seized by the Gestapo on May 17, 1944.
The last information that we have of him dates to October 1944. In the Paris remembrance volume and in the
local Jewish press, several fragments from his work were published which
indicate that in these most fateful of moments for him, he was still
writing. He died there at Auschwitz.

Varshavski Varshavski
(left), with Perets Markish to his left and H. Leivick facing him; man on right
unidentified

Thursday, 28 April 2016

He was born in Odessa, Ukraine, into
a prominent family. In his youth he
moved with his parents to Zhitomir, studied there for four years in the
rabbinical school, then graduated from high school, studied law for a year at
Odessa University, and completed his studies in 1875 in Kiev. He married in 1879 and then for many years
practiced as a courtroom lawyer. He was
also employed by the district court and the superior court. A man with good-natured humor and considerable
spiritual virtue, he was beloved of Kiev intellectuals and was a major hit with
his improvised humorous couplets, but he suffered materially, barely able to
make ends meet. Only in 1903 when he
became legal counsel for the Belgian firm of Huttes, did his situation
improved. Early in 1905 he became
seriously ill and returned to Kiev where he grew weak over the final two years
of his life and greatly suffering. He
died of apoplexy in Kiev.

Over the course many years, Varshavski
wrote poems with his own tunes (just like Avrom Goldfaden who was a frequent
visitor in his father home and throughout his life remained Varshavski’s
friend), but he did not want to make use of them. He thought they had no literary value and did
not even want them to be published. At
the end of the 1890s, he was discovered by Sholem Aleykhem who pushed him to
write down his poems with the melodies, and a portion of them—twenty-five in
all—were (with the help of Kiev Zionists) published in a collection entitled: Yudishe folks lider mit notn (Jewish
folksongs with notation), with a preface by Sholem Aleykhem (Warsaw, 1901), 78
pp. The collection had extraordinary success
and made it possible that he and Sholem Aleykhem would appear on stage together
in the evenings, and he would attempt to sing his own songs. A second edition of his book with a
biographical, critical preface by Sholem Aleykhem and with the addition of
twenty-one new songs—two of which were initially published in Yud (Jew) and Yudishe familye (Jewish family)—appeared in print only after
Varshavski’s death (Odessa: Moriya, 1914), 93 pp. and 14 pp. Another edition of his folksongs was published
in 1918 in New York (80 pp.), with a number of new, previously unseen songs
that emerged from his posthumous writings.
Certain of his poems were published with the music, such as: Afn pripetshok, oder alef-beys (On the
hearth, or the ABCs) (New York, 1913), 14 pp. (second edition, 1914); Dem milners trern (The miller’s tears)
(New York, 1917), 3 pp.; and many more.
Finally there was published a new edition of his folksongs with
thirty-one tunes, edited and with an introduction by Shmuel Rozhanski (Buenos
Aires, 1958), 213 pp.; this edition includes, in addition to Varshavski’s poems
and musical notation, “fragments of research work on their character and
memoirs concerning Varshavski” by Sholem Aleykhem, Itsik Manger, Yankev
Fikhman, V. Zhabotinsky, Elye Lipiner, B. Shefner, and Zalmen Hirshfeld, as
well as renditions of his works: Komets
alef-o (Komets-alef אָ[is pronounced] “o”)—(including
extracts of poems): “Der alef-beys” (The ABCs), “Peysekh” (Passover), “Dem
milners trern,” “A briv fun amerike” (A letter from America), “A yidish lid fun
rumenye” (A Yiddish song from Romania), “Dos lid fun broyt” (The song of bread),
“Der yid in veg” (The Jew on the road), “Der kholem” (The dream), “Shtey oyf!”
(Rise up!), “Di tekhter fun tsien zingen” (The sisters from Zion sing), “Tsien”
(Zion), “Af kidesh-hashem” (To the martyrs), and “Leshono habo birusholaim”
(Next year in Jerusalem); and A khasene
bay yidn) (A wedding among Jews)—including extracts: “Der shadkhn
moyshe-arn” (The matchmaker Moshe-Aharon), “Di bobe” (Grandmother), “Sore un
rivke” (Sarah and Rebecca), “Der bekher” (The goblet), “Der zeyde mit der bobe”
(Grandfather with Grandmother), “Dos freylikhe shnayderl” (The happy little
tailor), “Kalenyu, veyn-zhe, veyn” (Our bride, go ahead and cry), “Di rod” (The
wheel), and “A freylekhs” (A cheerful tune).
Certain of his songs were genuine folksongs, such as: “Der alef-beys,” “A
briv fun amerike,” “Afn pripetshok,” “Sore un rivke,” “Der zeyde mit der bobe,”
“A milners trern,” “Dos lid fun broyt,” “Der bekher,” and “Di muzinke” (The
female musician). His songs were of the
same essence as Jewish folk poetry itself and just like them reflected Jewish
folk life with all its suffering and delights.
The language of Varshavski’s songs was just as authentic and not
contrived in their content. The
beautiful heartfelt songs were fitted completely to the motifs of the texts,
and altogether brought about a situation in which his songs could be sung
anywhere one heard a word of Yiddish.

He lived in Warsaw. He studied at the Institute of Judaic
Studies, founded in 1928 by Professor Mayer Balaban, and received his M. A.
degree from Warsaw University. He was a
member of the circle of young Jewish historians in the society “Friends of YIVO”
in Warsaw. He distinguished himself in
this group of young historians by his talents and his sensibility when it came
to “primary sources”; he worked through archival materials and often read his
papers before the historians’ circle. He
wrote in both Polish and Yiddish. He
published: “Yidn in di nay-oysgeboyte shtet in kongres-poyln” (Jews in the
newly built cities in Congress Poland), Yivo-bleter
(Pages from YIVO) 3 (1932), pp. 28-35, in Vilna; and a highly valuable work, “Yidn
in kongres-poyln (1815-1831)” (Jews in Congress Poland, 1815-1831), Historishe shriftn (Historical writings)
2 (1937), pp. 222-54, a YIVO publication in Vilna. The latter of these essays is constructed in
its first part on archival materials, and in the second part (entitled “Yidn in
der geheymer politsey” [Jews in the secret police]) is built upon new, hitherto
unknown, materials concerning well-known men who secretly served or aided the
Tsarist police in Poland—among them, Antoni Ayzenboym (Anthony Eisenbaum), the
founder of the first Yiddish newspaper in Poland, Der beobakhter an der vaykhsel (The observer on the Vistula). He worked together with Dr. Emanuel
Ringelblum who thought highly of the young historian. He died during the Nazi occupation—when and
where remain unknown.

Sources:
Dr. P. Fridman, the collection “Bleter fun geshikhte” (Pages of history), Yivo-bleter (New York) 34 (1950), pp.
232, 239; oral information from Yishaye Trunk who worked with Varshavski in the
group of historians at YIVO in Warsaw.

He was born in Mlave (Mława), Poland, into a
Hassidic merchant household. He studied
in religious elementary school, in the shtibl
(small prayer house) of the Alexander Hassidim, and secular knowledge and
foreign languages through self-study. He
was a friend in his youth of Yoysef Opatoshu, with whom he studied
introspective Hassidic texts, Kabbala, the Jewish Enlightenment, and Hassidism. From his youth he was active in the
community, principally in the Zionist movement.
He was cofounder of the first library in Mlave (1904). He worked as a private Hebrew teacher and as
a bookkeeper in the local Jewish savings and loan. He was also a traveling emissary for the
Zionist central bureau for Poland, as well as a Hebrew teacher in Gostynin and
in the Plotsk Jewish high school. As a
newspaper correspondent for Warsaw’s Haynt
(Today), he accompanied an excursion to Israel in 1914, later inspiring the
Jewish world with his reports from the trip.
For many years he was an instructor at the Jewish National Fund. He debuted in print in Hebrew with “Tsiyurim”
(Designs), full of spiritual images and sketches of nature, in Hadegel (The banner) in London (1908),
and in Y. Ḥ.
Brenner’s Hameorer (The awakening) in London. In Yiddish he debuted in Roman-tsaytung (Fiction newspaper) in Warsaw (1909), and thereafter
published in: Yudishe vokhnblat
(Jewish weekly newspaper), Der fraynd
(The friend), Unzer lebn (Our life), Velt-shpigl (World mirror), Literarishe bleter (Literary leaves), Unzer ekspres (Our express), and Haynt—all in Warsaw—in which he
published stories, sketches, and current events articles; he also wrote for the
Forverts (Forward) in New York
(receiving first prize for his sketch “Dokter rabinovitsh” [Dr. Rabinovich] in
a Forverts competition in 1931); and
he contributed to, and for a time served as editorial secretary of, Hatsfira (The siren) under the
editorship of Yosef Heftman. He also
placed work in Dovid Frishman’s Hador
(The generation), Reshafim (Sparks),
and Baderekh (On the road)—in Warsaw,
as well as in other Yiddish and Hebrew periodicals in the Diaspora and in
Israel. His books include: Min hamoledet (From the motherland),
travel impressions from the land of Israel, Egypt, and the Orient (Warsaw,
1919), 160 pp.; Hegyonot vezaazuim
(Reason and tribulations), philosophical considerations (Warsaw, 1919), 148
pp.; Maalot umoradot (Ups and downs),
stories and sketches (Warsaw, 1929), 196 pp.; Hakore hatsair (The young reader), a series of booklets of illustrated
stories for young people (Warsaw, 1937).
In Yiddish: Di letste, fun mayn
khasidishe heym (The last ones, from my Hassidic home), stories of Jewish
circumstances and Hassidic life in the Polish shtetl, portions of which were
published in the anthology Di yidishe
proze in poyln tsvishn beyde velt-milhomes (Yiddish prose in Poland between
the two world wars) (New York, 1947) and in Pinkes
mlave (Records of Mlave) (New York, 1950).
His two books—Fun der heym
(From home), scenes from the shtetl, and Dos
un yents (This one and that one), features, current events, Zionist, and
pedagogical articles and essays—were typeset in 1939, but were never published
because of the war. He published as well
under such pen names as: Ben Aharon and Y. Varshai. “Yaker loved seclusion, a blade of grass, a
pebble, a cabin, a mound of soil,” wrote Y. Opatoshu. “Not a single thing passed him by. He observed everything with his eyeglasses. The least little thing was in his eyes
deserving of life.” Until September 1939
he worked as a Hebrew teacher in the community schools in Warsaw. Later he was confined to the ghetto and
worked as a clerk in the work office. He
wrote memoirs from the war and the ghetto, as well as a series of stories. During the selection in the summer of 1942,
the Nazis murdered him.

He was born in Radom, Poland. He graduated from the Jewish public school in
Warsaw. He cofounded the Zionist Revisionism
organization from the Revisionist Zionist youth organization Masada in
Poland. He served as vice-director of a
Tarbut school in Warsaw. In 1930 he
became a resident of Bialystok and leader of the local Revisionist movement. He was a member of the Bialystok city
council. He contributed pieces to Undzer lebn (Our life) in Bialystok, as
well as to a series of Zionist Revisionist organs. His books include: Di organizatsye fun der yidisher kehile in poyln (The organization
of the Jewish community in Poland) (Bialystok, 1932), 110 pp. He was murdered by the Germans in WWII.

He was born in Vilkovishki (Vilkaviškis),
Kovno district, Lithuania. He studied
economic science at Kovno University. In
the 1930s he was general secretary of the Jewish people’s bank. He published articles on economic issues in Dos vort (The word), organ of the Zionist
Socialist Party in Lithuania. In book
form: Ber borokhov (Ber Borochov),
with Tsvi Brik (Kovno, 1934), 64 pp. He
was an active leader in “Tseire-tsiyon” (Young Zionists) in Kovno. He died in a Nazi concentration camp during
WWII.

Sources:
Biography of Tsvi Brik in vol. 1 of this Leksikon
(New York, 1956) [translated on this website]; information from Y. Gar in New
York.

Wednesday, 27 April 2016

He was born in Drohitshin
(Drohichyn), near Pinsk, Byelorussia, into an Orthodox family. He studied in a “cheder metukan” (improved
religious elementary school) and later in a number of yeshivas. In 1933 he received ordination into the
rabbinate in Warsaw. From his early
youth, he was active in the Zionist youth movement, initially in “Tseire-Tsiyon”
(Young Zionists) and later the Zionist Revisionists. Over the years 1932-1938, he administer a
yeshiva in Warsaw, cofounded the “Religious Front” within the Revisionist Party
in Poland, served as secretary to Dr. R. Feldshuh in preparing his Yidisher gezelshaftlekher leksikon
(Jewish communal handbook) (publ. Warsaw, 1939). From late 1938 until 1950 he was living in
London, after that in the United States.
He worked as a rabbi in Chicago.
He began writing articles in 1929 for Grodner moment (Grodno moment), and from that point he contributed
as well to: Grodner ekspres (Grodno
express); Dos yudishe togblat (The
Jewish daily newspaper), Haynt
(Today), Moment (Moment), Unzer ekspres (Our express), Radyo (Radio), and Nayes (News)—in Warsaw; Dos
vort (The word) in Vilna; and Di
shtime (The voice) in Pinsk; Di
shtime in Brussels; among others. He
published topical poems, articles, reportage pieces, and novellas. His books include: Ikh bashuldik (J’accuse) (London, 1941), 18 pp.; Falshe meshikhim (False Messiahs)
(London, 1942), 20 pp.; Gasn-menshn
(Street people) (London, 1942), 20 pp.; Megiles
eykhe fun dritn khurbn (The scroll of Lamentations from the third
destruction) (Chicago, 1952), 64 pp.; In
shpigl fun tsayt (In the mirror of time) (New York, 1986), 320 pp. He published and edited Shikager tsayt-shrift (Chicago periodical) (1950-1951) and Buletin (Bulletin) in Chicago
(April-June 1954). He adapted and edited
the remembrance volume Drohitshin, “500
years of Jewish life” (Chicago, 1958), 424 pp.[1] This last volume also include an array of
important writings. He died in Chicago.

He was born in Mlave (Mława), Poland. He studied in religious elementary school,
synagogue study hall, and with private tutors.
In 1911 he arrived at the physics and mathematics department of Liège
University in Belgium. In 1914,
following the invasion of the German army into Belgium during WWI, he was
interned as a Russian citizen by the Germans into a camp in Germany. In 1916 he returned to Mlave. He was active in the local “Hazemir” (The
nightingale) drama group and the main library.
In 1919 he moved to Warsaw and served in the Polish military. In Warsaw he was active in the Bund, in the
trade union and cooperative labor movement, and in the statistics division of
the Joint Distribution Committee. From
March 1939 he was living in Australia.
He began publishing with short sketches in Hadegel (The banner) in London (1909), and from that point he
contributed articles, essays on literature, travel narratives, reportage
pieces, and translations to: Di
folkstsaytung (The people’s newspaper), Yugnt-veker
(Youth alarm), Vokhnshrift (Weekly
writing), Foroys (Onward), Literarishe bleter (Literary leaves),
and Druker-arbeter (Publisher
laborer) in Warsaw; Vilner tog (Vilna
day); Unzer tsayt (Our time) and Pinkes mlave (Records of Mlave) in New
York; Oyfboy (Construction), Melburner bleter (Melbourne leaves), Unzer gedank (Our idea), Melburner yidishe nayes (Melbourne
Jewish news), and Oystralish-yidishe post
(Australian Jewish mail) in Melbourne; Unzer
shtime (Our voice) in Paris; Davar
(Word) and Lebns-fragn (Life issues)
in Tel Aviv; Foroys in Mexico City;
and Di prese (The press) in Buenos
Aires. He also wrote in Polish and
English. His books include: Di farloyrene basmalke (The lost
princess), a story in verse (following R. Nakhmen Braslaver) (Melbourne, 1944),
128 pp. He wrote in clear verse,
particularly fitting for younger readers; his popular pamphlets include (each 64
pp.): Maks nordoy (Max Nordau)
(Warsaw, 1935); Leon blum (Léon
Blum); Tshingis-khan, der mongolisher velṭ-hersher
(Chinggis Khan, the Mongolian ruler of the world) (Warsaw, 1936); Suez kanal (Suez Canal); Oysern-mongolye (Outer Mongolia)
(Warsaw, 1936)—using the pseudonyms B. Adelas, Binski, and others, and all
published by the Groshn-biblyotek (Penny library) in Warsaw. He translated Henri Barbusse’s Le feu (The fire) as Dos fayer (Warsaw, 1924), 515 pp., which
went through three printings. He edited:
the monthly journal Druker-arbeter in
Warsaw (1926-1939); and 50 yor lebn, zamlbukh
gevidmet lozer klog (Fifty years of a life, anthology dedicated to Lozer
Klog) (Warsaw, 1936), 172 pp. He
co-edited: Tsveyter oystralish-yidisher
almanakh (Second Australian Jewish almanac) (Melbourne, 1942), 448 pp.; 10 yor yidishe shul in melburn (Ten
years of Jewish school in Melbourne) (Melbourne, 1945), 252 pp.; and Unzer gedank (Melbourne); among
others. He wrote under such pen names as:
B. Varski, Simkhe, Firet, Semper, and Idem.
He died in Melbourne.

He was born in Odessa, Ukraine. After the Bolshevik uprising in Russia, he
moved to England (1918) and settled in Hull where he earned a living as a
merchant. He was the author of Di khokhme hatalmud un di nayeste
erfindungen (Talmud scholars and the latest inventions) (Warsaw, 1933), 181
pp. In the foreword, he wrote that the
goal of his book was to demonstrate the influences of the Talmud on modern
civilization over the course of the previous 150 years. He also wrote Kavod hatora velomdeha (The majesty of the Torah and the study of
it), a polemical work (London, 1930), 64 pp.
Other biographical information remains unknown.

He was born in Kalish, Poland. He studied in religious elementary school and
later in a middle school in Russia. His
literary activities began in 1920 in Hebrew in the Hebrew-German journal Menora (Menorah) in Vienna. Thereafter, he published and edited—in
Warsaw—the Hebrew-language journals Had
hanoar (The echo of youth) and Alim
(Pages), was co-editor of Hayom
(Today), served as editorial secretary of Hatsfira
(The siren), together with Y. Vayngartn edited the children’s newspaper Iton katan (Little newspaper), and
together with Y. A. Handelzolts edited Itoni
(My newspaper). He later switched to
Yiddish and Polish, wrote articles, critical treatises, and stories in: Moment (Moment), Haynt (Today), Ekspres
(Express), Radyo (Radio), Nayes (News), Chwila (Moment), Nowy
Dziennik (New daily), Naszprzegląd (Our review), Nowy
głos (Our voice), Opinia
(Opinion), and Wiadomości literackie
(Literary news), among others, in Warsaw.
He also placed pieces in Hebrew-language newspapers in other countries,
such as: Haolam (The world), Haarets (The land), Hadoar (The mail), and Davar
(Word). His books would include: Beli emuna (Without faith), short
stories (Warsaw, 1927/1928), 143 pp.; Orot
meofel (Light from darkness), a novel of Jewish life in Poland (Warsaw,
1930), 188 pp.; Afilot (Late
ripeners), sketches (Warsaw, 1935), 124 pp.
In Yiddish he published Poyln
(Poland), an anthology of Polish prose (subsidized by the Polish
government). He was also a contributor
to the encyclopedia Masada (in
German), Entsiklopediya kelalit
(General encyclopedia), and Tsienistisher
leksikon (Zionist handbook). He also
served as secretary of the Hebrew Pen Club and a member of the executive of the
Hebrew literary association of Warsaw.

In
the Warsaw Ghetto he was assistant to the sad and eminent Avrom Gantsvaykh in
“Draytsntl” (Thirteenth), “an office to combat usury and speculation,” exposing
information for the Gestapo, founded in December 1940 and liquidated in July
1941; they were Draytsntl because their office was located at 13 Leszno
Street. He was Gantsvaykh’s press chief,
and he directed loudspeaker propaganda among Jewish writers and artists in the
ghetto concerning “great cultural perspectives” that the Draytsntl, under
Gantsvaykh’s direction, opened up for Jewish intellectuals in the ghetto. His propaganda worked for many Jewish
writers, but the majority of them soon washed their hands of him. Only a few remained with him until the
end. Varshavyak also wrote for Gazeta
Żydowska (Jewish gazette), “organ of
the Jewish council,” for which “no respectable journalist would ever write”
(according to Dr. Emanuel Ringelblum, Notitsn
fun varshever geto [Notices from the Warsaw Ghetto]). He wrote there, under the pen name “Varshou,”
eulogies for the ghetto police and the like.
He later worked for “First Aid” under Draytsntl and “paraded about with
his hat and its little stars” (Y. Turkov, Azoy
iz es geven [That’s how it was]). No
one knows what happened to him in 1942 or 1943.
Writers who knew him believe that he was shot in 1942. In any event, he did not participate in the
Ghetto Uprising.

He was born in Maltsh (Malecz), near
Pruzhane (Prużana), Byelorussia.
From age six he was raised in the nearby town of Antopol (Antopolye). He received a rigorous religious education
and made a name for himself as a prodigy.
At age fourteen he was already leading the local youth organization “Hashomer
Hadati” (The religious guard). He was
also among the leadership of the society “Tiferet Baḥurim” (Glory of young men). He studied thereafter in the yeshiva of Kamenets-Litovsk. He began his writing activities around 1930,
and from that point contributed work to Orthodox publications, such as: Dos vort (The word) in Vilna; Dos yudishe togblat (The Jewish daily
newspaper) in Warsaw; and the journal Darkenu
(Our way). In 1936 he was editor of the
journal Kneset bet yitsḥak
(Congregation of the House of Isaac). He
was murdered by the Nazis during WWII.

Sources:
Information from his friend from youth, R. Yankev Fester, and from his uncle,
Avrom Varsho.

He was born in Antopol (Antopolye),
Byelorussia. He studied in religious
elementary school, synagogue study chamber, and with private tutors. As a young man he became a house
painter. In 1921 he moved to the United
States and settled in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
He later lived in Chicago, where he was active in Jewish community and
cultural life. He began writing poetry
and stories in the late 1920s. He
debuted in print in Di yidishe velt
(The Jewish world) in Philadelphia (1930), and from that point he published
stories, poems, impressions, and reportage pieces in: Idisher kuryer (Jewish courier) and Der idisher veg (The Jewish way) in Chicago; Idishe rekord (Jewish record) in St. Louis; Forverts (Forward) in New York and Chicago; Tog (Day), Idisher kemfer
(Jewish fighter), Feder (Pen), and Amerikaner (American) in New York; among
others. In book form: Yorn fun fayer un blut (Years of fire
and blood), stories of Jewish life in the old country and in America (Chicago,
1950), 303 pp., with a preface by the author.
He also published under such pen names as: A. Ben-Shloyme, Kh. Harkman,
A. Antipolski, and A. Shleymes. He died
in Miami Beach.

He was born in Lodz, Poland, into a
Hassidic family. He studied in religious
elementary school, synagogue study chamber, and with private tutors. He later became a business employee. He was active in Jewish cultural institutions
and drama circles. He served in the
Russian military, 1914-1918. He then
returned to Lodz and became a merchant.
He authored dramas, comedies, and one-act plays which he learned
thoroughly with drama circles and staged on literary evenings. His books include: Dor hafloge oder di moderne ferkerte velt (The generation after the
Tower of Babel or the modern world in reverse), a comedy in three acts and four
scenes (Lodz, 1914), 39 pp.; Di hayntige
yugend (Today’s youth), a play in four acts (Lodz, 1926), 61 pp. He was living in Poland until WWII. His subsequent fate remains unknown.

He lived in Olkenik (Valkininkai),
Vilna district. He graduated from the
local Jewish public school. Later he
became a laborer in a cardboard factory.
He administered the Jewish People’s Library and dramatic circle in the
town. For many years he was the Olkenik
correspondent for Vilner tog (Vilna
day). When the Soviets occupied the city
in 1939, he became the correspondent for Vilner
emes (Vilna truth). He died in the
years of WWII.